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Issues: U.S. Law and Policy

DOE and EPA Agree to Make a Brighter Energy Star

October 16, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
appliances, buildings, energyefficiency, energystar

Last week the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Energy Star program. Who runs Energy Star, the extremely successful program for promoting efficient appliances, equipment, and buildings, and...

Big Savings and Big Changes as a Result of Agreement on New Air Conditioning and Furnace Standard

October 14, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
appliances, centralairconditioners, efficiencystandards, energyefficiency, furnaces, heatpumps

NRDC and other efficiency groups released a negotiated agreement with manufacturers of residential air conditioners and furnaces yesterday, marking the end of a journey to come to consensus that lasted many months.  I negotiated on NRDC's behalf and we will...

Obama issues executive order for greener and more efficient federal facilities and operations

October 6, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
energyefficiency

Yesterday President Obama signed a sweeping Executive Order that instructs all agencies to step up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save energy and water. This isn't the first time that the inefficiency of federal facilities has received attention,...

Proof of Concept: Well Crafted Standards Spur Innovation in Lighting

July 11, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
appliances, energyefficiency, lamps, standards

There was an excellent article in the NY Times last Sunday, detailing the unexpected rise of super-efficient incandescent light bulbs as a result of the standard in the 2007 energy bill. The article quotes our own lighting and electronics efficiency...

Clean Energy in the Stimulus: Follow the Money

March 30, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
energyefficiency, stimulus

DOE released the funding distribution for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG) from the recovery act (ARRA) late last week. With this action, we now know as much as we are going to about the destination of the...

Time for You to Weigh In On the Biggest Potential Energy Saving Standard in History

February 27, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
efficiencystandards, energyefficiency, lamps

I have blogged a couple times about the current rulemaking on lamps (bulbs) being undertaken by the Department of Energy. I won't rehash much, but it is the largest potential energy saver of any appliance standard in the program's history....

Obama to DOE: Chop-Chop!

February 5, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
appliances, DOE, efficiencystandards, energyefficiency

President Obama issued a memo today to the Department of Energy on appliance efficiency standards requiring that, a) The Department meet all their deadlines to issue standards between now and Aug 8th and,b) Accelerate the process for standards with deadlines...

New commercial refrigeration standard from DOE a head scratcher

January 10, 2009

Posted by Lane Burt

Tags:
DOE, efficiencystandards, energyefficiency

The Bush administration released new efficiency standards for commercial refrigeration equipment on Friday, finalizing the levels they proposed last October. This standard covers the refrigerated display units used in grocery stores and gas stations. You can find the full document...

Lane Burt
Lane Burt
Manager, Building Energy Policy
Washington DC
I am the Manager of Building Energy Policy in NRDC's Washington, D.C. office. My work...
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